PRODUCT MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS: BUILDING THE RIGHT THING

Setting objectives for product teams using OKRs

Team objectives should empower and motivate teams and measure progress in a meaningful manner. OKRs are to effectively manage teams, bring focus to work, and create alignment. At scale, the product leadership will play a key role in developing and monitoring OKRs for product success

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When setting objectives for product teams, two fundamental principles should be addressed:

• Objectives structures and planning should empower and motivate team members to do their best work
• Progress and outcomes should be measured in a meaningful manner

To achieve this, most big-tech and product and customer-centric organizations utilize the OKR (i.e., Objectives and Key Results) technique.

The principles of using OKR effectively

The OKR technique is a tool for management, focus, and alignment. To best utilize its value-add, 8 critical points need to be considered:

1. “Objectives” are qualitative statements driven by the business strategy and product vision while “Key Results” are quantitative targets to achieve the business results and are therefore measurable
2. Each product team can have its own unique OKRs. The great thing about OKRs is that it’s flexible and scalable across many product teams, giving them personalized accountability
3. It’s a rule of thumb to develop Objectives annually and the Key Results every quarter. However, depending on the life stage of your business (i.e., startup vs. mature), these timeline suggestions can be shorter
4. Keep the Objectives to a maximum of three, and a maximum of three Key Results per Objective
5. Agree on evaluation approaches and the definition of success and failure before rolling OKRs for execution and tracking. Be very transparent during this communication process
6. The Product Leadership is responsible for setting objectives and reaching agreements on Key Results with teams. This process should be a negotiation with give and takes. This might become a long process that requires patience and aligning all team members with the realities of their business circumstances
7. Tracking KRs against Objectives should be done weekly, with Monday morning alignment meetups and Friday afternoon wrap-ups or reviews
8. While teams are held accountable for their OKRs, shortcomings or target misses should be dealt with a supportive mindset such as with solution-focused postmortems

The 6 core principles for structuring high-performing product teams

Utilizing OKRs at scale

To utilize OKRs at large-scale organizations with many product teams, the role of the Product Leadership will be key in creating alignment and clarity to minimize entropy and redundancy. To achieve this, here are some tips:

1. All teams must have access to each other’s OKRs and know what each team is working on for transparency and creating a sense of unity. This will also help teams to exchange tips and share ideas on how best to solve problems at times of need
2. Communication and clarity will be key at scale and it’s the role of product leadership to provide enough context to team members so that they grab a firm understanding of what they are working on, and why. Furthermore, the leadership can use this process to cover gaps and make plans for further growth or downsizing
3. The OKR development process should be a mindful negotiation or conversation between leadership and team members to ensure the utmost alignment and buy-in
4. Platform or shared services teams will also need relevant OKRs and the product leadership needs to collaboratively build OKRs that reduce dependencies across various product teams
5. Tracking progress is the task of product leadership. Product leadership is the lubricant between the cogs that reduces friction, monitors for shortcomings, and pushes for improvements
6. Business unit OKRs should meaningfully and easily roll up into their corporate-level OKRs, otherwise, miscommunication or management incompetency is at play and needs to be ratified immediately

Defining the Head of Product

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